6/27/2001 @ 5:45PM

Can't Buy Me Love

Money can’t buy everything. Or can it? Here are eight May-December marriages from our 2001 World Billionaires list. Would these romances have blossomed had these fellows been bankrupt instead of billionaires? We’ll never know.

When
Carmen
Cervera
Carmen Cervera
became the fifth wife of Swiss industrialist Baron
Hans Heinrich “Heini”
Thyssen-Bornemisza
Hans Heinrich “Heini” Thyssen-Bornemisza
in 1985 (at the time he was 64; she was 41), he had already signed over his $2 billion empire to his five children. The Baron expected to receive a generous living allowance, and appointed his eldest son Georg to manage the Thyssen Steel fortune. But Cervera had other plans. In 1997 the Baron and Cervera launched a legal battle to reclaim control of the money. The protracted family fracas is playing out in Bermuda, where the Thyssen-Bornemisza trust was set up, and has become one of the most expensive lawsuits in history, racking up $65 million in fees. The former Miss Spain is the suit’s co-plaintiff and will be awarded the entire family trust should she win and outlive her 80-year-old husband.

Can’t Buy Me Love

Silvio Berlusconi, 64, and Veronica Lario, 45

The curvy film-noir star
Veronica
Lake
Veronica Lake
was among the most successful Hollywood actresses of her generation, which is why
Miriam
Bartolino
Miriam Bartolino
took the Italian version of the name–
Veronica
Lario
Veronica Lario
–when she became an actress. Lario never made it big on screen; instead she starred in the 1985 Italian sex farce Sotto…Sotto as a married woman who has a lesbian affair. But she did hit the marriage jackpot in 1990 when she wed media mogul
Silvio
Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
, the 64-year-old billionaire who was recently elected Italian prime minister. The couple met in the 1980s when he came backstage to personally compliment a performance of hers, which reportedly included a topless scene. Now Lario has a reputation for keeping a low profile, seen only occasionally on opening nights at La Scala, Milan’s famed opera house.

Can’t Buy Me Love

David Koch, 61, and Julia Koch, 39

Bill
Clinton
Bill Clinton
isn’t the only Little Rock, Ark., native to make it big.
Julia
Koch
Julia Koch
was working as a $200-a-week assistant to haute couture designer Adolfo when she met financier
David
Koch
David Koch
on a blind date. Koch married Julia in 1996 at his Southampton, Long Island, estate. The couple currently lives in the Fifth Avenue apartment formerly owned by
Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
. Now instead of working for designers, Julia Koch keeps them in business; this year she made the fashion industry’s International Best Dressed Poll, along with the likes of
Lauren
Bacall
Lauren Bacall
and
Uma
Thurman
Uma Thurman
.

Can’t Buy Me Love

Bernard Ecclestone, 70, and Slavica Ecclestone, 42

She’s 28 years his junior and a foot taller than him, but that’s not what makes Slavica and
Bernie
Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
an odd couple. Far more unique in this age of the prenuptial agreement is that Ecclestone has voluntarily put much of his wealth in her name, making her one of Britain’s richest women. (Forbes includes Slavica’s wealth in Bernard’s net worth.) The Croatian-born model was just 22 when she first met Ecclestone at a Formula One race in Italy. Not knowing who Ecclestone was, she gave him the brushoff–and a phony phone number. The smitten Ecclestone tracked her down in Milan and convinced her to take a trip with him to Las Vegas, where–with the help of a Serb-Croat interpreter–true love blossomed.

Can’t Buy Me Love

Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, 70, and Lynn Forester, 46

Lynn
Forester
Lynn Forester
was a successful entrepreneur in her own right before she brokered the deal of a lifetime last year, marrying Sir
Evelyn de
Rothschild
Evelyn de Rothschild
, who sits atop one of the world’s oldest private banking families. Forester met the 70-year-old scion at the 1998 Bilderberg Conference, an exclusive summit for financiers and foreign policy experts, which was held in Scotland that year. The duo had a small wedding in London last November, and the very next day Senator
Daniel Patrick
Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
and his wife Elizabeth hosted a dinner for the couple to celebrate, with then-President
Bill
Clinton
Bill Clinton
and wife Hillary in attendance. Forester now heads the Luxembourg-based wireless broadband venture
FirstMark Communications Europe
. The startup launched in 1998 with great fanfare, raising $1 billion in funding and landing former Secretary of State
Henry
Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
and Washington consigliere
Vernon
Jordan
Vernon Jordan
as board members. But with losses piling up and a public offering pulled, investors are now disgruntled. Not to worry–there’s no better backup plan than the Rothschild name.

Can’t Buy Me Love

Rupert Murdoch, 70, and Wendy Deng, 32

Wendy
Deng
Wendy Deng
has managed to get
Rupert
Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
mixed up in the same kind of scandal that his tabloids are infamous for exploiting. His affair with the statuesque Yale MBA precipitated a messy 1999 divorce with Anna, his wife of 31 years. He and Deng married in 1999 and recently announced that she is pregnant, further complicating the issue of who will succeed him at the helm of
News Corp.
Murdoch has groomed a succession of his children–Elisabeth, Lachlan and James–to fill the top spot once he has shuffled off this mortal coil. But now Deng herself seems firmly in the running. She was working in Hong Kong for Murdoch’s Star TV satellite outfit when she caught the magnate’s eye; Murdoch was reportedly quite taken with her understanding of the Chinese media industry.

Can’t Buy Me Love

David Murdock, 78, and Tracy Murdock, 40

After two divorces and the death of his third wife,
David
Murdock
David Murdock
married Tracy, an interior decorator, in 1999. Tracy, 40, and the 78-year-old chief executive of Dole Foods now divide their time between their Bel Air mansion and their ranch in Thousand Oaks, Calif., dubbed Ventura Farms, where they are in the process of building an orchid conservatory. Tracy Murdock is still a decorator, and she also competes in horse shows with the horses that she and her husband breed on the farm. The couple frequently host lavish benefits at their estate to raise money for conservative causes and children’s charities.

Can’t Buy Me Love

Marc Rich, 66, and Gisela Rich, 48

Former tax fugitive
Marc
Rich
Marc Rich
was seen publicly with Gisela for years before his 1992 divorce from first wife Denise, who was understandably furious about this. So it’s ironic that it is probably thanks to Denise that Gisela and her husband can finally hit the slopes in Aspen together. Denise, of course, had been under investigation for the influence her Democratic fundraising may have had on President
Bill
Clinton
Bill Clinton
‘s decision to pardon her ex-husband. In April Denise agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for immunity. German-born Gisela, the widow of an Italian businessman, helped Marc Rich pass the time in Switzerland where he was hiding out; he reportedly romanced her on the slopes of St. Moritz. Even before Gisela landed Rich, the German press described her as a schickimicki, slang for the decadent and idle beautiful people. The towering blonde has also been called a tigress. To land the world’s cagiest commodities trader, she’d have to be.